The "cult-like following" and "media frenzy" are intertwined. Tebow's huge popularity after his college success and stature as a good human won him legions of followers. And as a result, a coach told Silver he would consider signing Tebow, "But it's just not worth dealing with all the stuff that comes with it."

Another coach said: "You don't want to put up with the circus."

The Yahoo! story began getting heavy pickup from internet sites, many of which rewrote it. At least one news service, NFL.com, the league's official website, weighed in on the subject as well.

Take all the reports with a grain of salt, but there also are kernels of truth to be retrieved.

It's May and Tebow just was released. We haven't even had all of the rookie minicamps yet. Available free agents like John Abraham, Dwight Freeney, Brandon Lloyd and Richard Seymour don't have jobs either, and they have been out there for months. They all are likely to have bigger roles than Tebow in 2013, too.

Guys released after the draft usually don't get picked up right away. Tebow is at this point of his career, but it doesn't mean his career is over.

He just needs to find an opportunity and improve his stock. I still have confidence he'll get that chance.

So everybody should take a deep breath, calm down and not go looking for a conspiracy theory against a massively popular player.